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Seeing green

Q: I keep seeing green triangles in my Excel
spreadsheet (pictured below); can you please tell me how to get rid of
them? Thank you.

A: The small green triangles displayed in the
top-left corner of a cell are indicators of a possible error. By
default, Excel 2010, 2007, and 2003 display this indicator whenever
the program detects one of the following nine common spreadsheet errors:

1. The cell contains a formula error.

2. The cell’s column total calculation is inconsistent with adjacent
column total calculations (this rule is not included in Excel 2003).

3. The cell contains a date where the year is represented with only
two digits.

4. The cell contains numbers formatted as text or numbers preceded
by an apostrophe.

5. The cell contains a formula inconsistent with other formulas in
the region.

6. The cell contains a formula that omits certain data—for example,
a formula that refers to only a portion of a solid range of data.

7. The cell contains a formula but is unlocked in a protected worksheet.

If you are one of those amazing CPAs who never makes an error, you
can disable Excel’s error-checking indicators as follows. In Excel
2010 or 2007, select File, Options
(or Excel Options), Formulas, and
under the Error Checking section, uncheck the box
labeled Enable background error checking. Or, if you
prefer, uncheck any of the boxes in the next section (labeled
Error checking rules) to individually disable any
of the nine rules listed there (see box below).

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